Let's get together (updated)

Ok, so it looks as if the top choice thus far is for us all to meet at Hard Times in Bethesda on Wednesday, April 7. If that works for everyone, let's plan on meeting there around 7:30 p.m. (I'm open to adjusting that start time. Just let me know what works best for all of you.)

I want as many people to come to this as possible, so if there's a strong contingent of folks for whom this time/date/place does not work, make yourselves heard now and we'll see what we can work out. I'll make a post sometime on Friday to set everything in stone.

Again, I look forward to meeting with you all. And if any of you are familiar with Indianapolis, please email me at yandas@washpost.com with any suggestions on places to eat while I'm there covering the Final Four.

Why wouldn't a gathering of people that comment on a Terp Blog take place in College Park . . the actual home of Testudo? We would be surrounded by current students and alumni, Terp memorabilia, hot chicks, dirt cheap drinks and food. It's where we all go to pre-game for bball games so I think CP is quite simply the most logical place to meet.

Or another thought is to make this a tradition and rotate the venues. I applaud Yanda for making himself acessible to all of us and hope he is ready for what is in store. We have a long offseason before football starts. The more accessible Yanda is to us in person, the more conversation we can have about making this blog something we all can really appreciate. GO TERPS!!

Unfortunately I won't be able to go to this. My comments would be: (1) the reporting this year was very strong -- lots of helpful and important information, and its very valuable to have one person watching every game; (2) the commentary seemed hit or miss.

I can see why some have said the commentary tended too much toward the negative, and in a way I agree. My major problem was that it was often too judgmental. It's not a matter of not letting the judgment show, it's a matter of not judging at all. When a writer has made a judgment and then proceeds to try to comment neutrally, it always comes across anyway, and that's even more annoying to the reader if he has a more plausible explanation but is being forced to accept the writer's.

I also would have liked to see more discussion of the team outside the context of the last or the next game. How is the team progressing? What are its strengths and weaknesses, and how are they changing during the course of the season? What are its primary challenges in trying to improve?

If I can be so bold as to offer advice, try to remember that wins and losses are important, but the interesting content is in how the teams' played. After the overtime loss at Wake, there was way too much emphasis on what a devastating loss it was, and not enough on how well the Terps played, how well Wake played, and the overall high quality of the game. On the other hand, this was done very well in the coverage after the loss to Ga. Tech in the ACC tournament. The focus was on the interesting split in terms of how poorly they played in the first half and how great their effort was in almost storming back, and the reverse being true for Tech.

Some of the best posts this season were those immediately preceding a game. It makes it much more enjoyable to watch when there's a thorough accounting of the other team's roster ahead of time, and I saw a lot of thought-provoking before-the-fact analysis discussing what the Terps had to do to win. Also liked hearing from other league coaches who were "granted anonymity in exchange for their candor." A string of good sentences always followed that phrase.

I would love to come to this but, I coach my son's baseball team and we have practice scheduled for that night.

If I could come I would suggest that the "Pravda on the Potomac" sports writers ease up on the Fridge and Gary because they run clean programs. And I would suggest that if they want to do some investigative reporting into "area" programs they should check into the VA Tech B-Ball and Football programs because, something hasn't seemed right down there for quite sometime.

I live 20 miles south of Annapolis so Bethesda is too far for me. My comments would be that I really enjoy the extra coverage by The Post writers and really , really don't see any negative agenda from them. If you want to read only happy stuff; read the Terrapin Times. Some people seem to take themselves too seriously in the comments area but I still enjoy reading them.